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Paul Glassman’s Costa Rica Guide
PASSPORT PRESS Eleventh Edition Copyright © 2003 by Paul Glassman

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8
San José

Population: 325,000; Metropolitan Area Population: 1,000,000; Altitude: 1182 meters (3877 feet)

San José, the capital of Costa Rica, is many towns. At its center are steel-and-concrete towers, shops with plate-glass windows displaying the latest fashions and consumer electronic gadgetry, thoroughfares busy with traffic, and sidewalks crowded with neatly dressed businessmen and office workers. All might have been transplanted from a medium-sized Spanish city.

Just west of the main square is the bustling market area, much more Central American in character, where tinkerers, wholesalers and vendors of food and every necessity of daily life eke out their livings from tiny shops and market stalls and street stands, where buses and delivery trucks and taxis battle to advance through the throngs and commerce overflowing the sidewalks. Here, the buildings are one- and two-story, relatively dingy, and mostly unseen by the casual observer for all the activity around them.

Farther west of downtown San José, and in some of the surrounding suburbs, are the areas of gracious living, where huddled constructions give way to spacious, ranch-style houses with green lawns, always surrounded by substantial fences. This is where California- and Florida-style living—all the amenities in a benign climate—has grafted itself onto the local scene.

And there are the working-class neighborhoods as well, once-independent villages that lodge in simple, neat and non-unpleasant tin-roofed houses, among clusters of coffee and banana trees, the thousands of people who make San José run.

The city was founded in 1737 as Villa Nueva de la Boca del Monte del Valle de Abra, as the expanding population of the colony of Costa Rica moved westward from Cartago, then the capital. One of dozens of farming centers in a valley of forests, pastures and little plots of subsistence crops, San José—the name of the town was shortened to that of its patron saint—became the capital of Costa Rica during the brief upheavals that followed independence. Only slowly, though, did it grow into a national center, as commerce in coffee and bananas brought substantial revenues to government and business, along with new administrative requirements. But even as San José grew to encompass nearby villages, it never lost its small-town ways. Josefinos—the people of the capital—still know most of their neighbors by name, not simply as familiar faces. They shop at the corner store—the pulpería—as often as at the supermarket, to pick up the local gossip along with their eggs, coffee and beans. And they gather at sodas and bars—their own counterparts of cafés and pubs—to while away spare time and discuss the latest upswings and downturns of their fortunes.

San José sits at the bottom of a teacup valley, the mound-shaped volcano Barva to the north, a ridge of hills to the south, the slopes of both honeycombed with farms. Hardly a part of the city is out of sight of these pastoral surroundings. San José's best moments come in the late afternoon of any day in the rainy season, after a storm has blown through on a near-furious wind, soaked the land, and cooled the air that for an hour or two borders on hot or humid at the coffee altitudes. The sky turns blue again, and wisps of cloud stick to the northern slopes of patchwork fields. As evening falls, clusters of lights appear in the surrounding higher villages, and twinkle on into the night.

Travellers use San José as a takeoff point for excursions to the many beaches and natural wonders of Costa Rica. Obligatory points of interest are few. But the hotels, country clubs, fine dining, recreational opportunities and measured pace invite the visitor to linger, especially when the weather at home is unpleasantly cold or oppressively hot. Costa Ricans tend to view their capital as a city without a heritage, but I do not think that this is so. For the outsider with time and interest, there are a few fine baroque and Victorian and Renaissance-style buildings to view, with fantastic turrets and towers, and steep tin roofs, relics of the years of the coffee boom; visits to the magnificent National Theater, and to museums that display the jade and gold and other artistic treasures of the nation; plays and concerts to attend, and local ways to observe from the table of a sidewalk café or from the bench of one of the many little parks. The city is low-key, a pleasant place in which to live, and therefore a nice place to visit.

On Your Way to San José

The Airport

Juan Santamaría International Airport is located on the outskirts of Alajuela, 17 kilometers west of San José. It's a small and manageable facility serving foreign scheduled flights and some domestic ones (local charters use the Tobías Bolaños airstrip in Pavas).

When you get off the plane, you're free to shop at the duty-free stores for liquor and cigarettes before you pass through immigration and customs. (What a deal! Lower prices than in U.S. airports, and no risk of breakage en route.)

Immigration lineups are generally speedy, but if several planes touch down one after another, or a large charter load arrives, you could well stand in line for over an hour.

Next—before the cursory customs check—comes the tourist information counter. Make reservations here for a hotel in town if you don't already have one arranged, and pick up any other information you need—they're quite helpful.

To change money, look for an exchange booth. If it's not open, you'll have to go left and back inside the terminal building after you leave the customs area. Banking hours are Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Or deal with the street money-changers outside the arrivals area.

Transport from the airport to San José is available by taxi for about $15; and on the regular Alajuela-San José buses and microbuses that stop in front of the terminal. These run every ten to fifteen minutes, and charge less than 50 cents. Luggage space on buses is limited, but the driver might allow you to put your bags in an otherwise empty seat for an extra fare.

Staying Near the Airport

Of the high-end hotels listed in this chapter, the Marriott, Camino Real-Inter Continental, Cariari and Herradura (pages 125-27) are most convenient to the airport, a short taxi or shuttle ride away. In the middle range, the Hampton Inn (page 128) is just across the road (though traffic is so crazy at the airport circle that you might want to take a taxi anyway), and the Hotel del Aeropuerto (page 128) offers pickups. Budget lodging is available in the city of Alajuela (see page 212), a couple of kilometers away.

Arriving by Bus

Buses arrive at terminals scattered through central San José (see page 184). Most are in areas with either no accommodations or less-than-attractive digs. Taxis in San José are inexpensive, so if you arrive after dark and are not sure of your surroundings, take one to your hotel.

Getting Your Bearings

Avenidas in San José run from east to west, with odd-numbered avenidas north of Avenida Central, or Central Avenue, and even-numbered avenidas to the south. Calles, or streets, run north-south, with odd-numbered calles east of the Calle Central, even-numbered streets to the west. You'll quickly get used to this scheme as you go around the city, though you'll probably confuse your avenidas and calles at first.

The two main areas of interest are the central business district, around the intersection of Avenida Central and Calle Central; and the high-toned Paseo Colón district, to the west. Paseo Colón is a continuation of Avenida Central. From the western end of Paseo Colón to the center of the city is just over a mile, a distance easily negotiated on foot or on the many city buses that run along Colón.

North, east, west and south of the central area are the barrios, or neighborhoods, of the capital—Los Yoses, Sabana Sur, Bellavista, and several dozen others. Adjoining suburban municipalities, such as Guadalupe and San Pedro, comprise the Area Metropolitana (Metropolitan Area) with San José, and are, for practical purposes, part of a single city.

HOTELS

The best hotel values in San José are to found at the upper end of the price scale, but there are also a few good buys in the medium and budget ranges. In general, rooms are larger on the outskirts than right downtown, so you might well give some thought to staying in the west end, at little sacrifice in convenience. Most budget hotels are downtown.

What will you pay?

Luxury hotels charge $150 and up, single or double, with taxes, with a certain amount of variation from season to season and even from day to day, if there's a convention or some other special event going on. A middle-range hotel room costs from $70 to $90 double in San José, though you can find clean, airy rooms on the outskirts, especially in bed and breakfasts, for $40 to $60 double. The most modest hotels in San José charge about $25 double. The higher you go on the price scale, however, the better the deal you can make if you reserve through a toll-free number.

Do they have room?

Reservations are advisable at any holiday period. Take advantage of toll-free telephone numbers for this purpose, if you can. Otherwise, the airport branch of the tourist office will help you find a room in your price range when you arrive.

Can you sleep?

San José is not a restful city by night. Traffic rolls at all hours, night watchmen blow their whistles, and celebrations, of which there are many, are marked mainly by attention-getting noises.

If you're staying at any downtown hotel, cheap or luxury, and your sleep is important to you, try to get a room that does not face the street (which often costs more). If this is not possible, then find a room elsewhere.

Are they clean?

Housekeeping is often poor at smaller hotels, and sometimes at larger ones. You can always expect to find dust on surfaces above eye level and in carpets—unless adequate housekeeping is mentioned in my description.

Budget note

There are lots of cheap hotels in San José, but most of them are located in noisy, undesirable areas, such as the blocks near the main bus stations. Budget hotels usually charge by the person, and fit no more than two to a room. If four or more compatible people are travelling together, you might do almost as well to book a moderately priced hotel, where you pay by the room, with a small charge per extra person.

The Best Hotels

If you are open-ended about your travel plans, consider staying in one of the fine smaller hotels with personal, concierge-type service to help you throughout your trip. The classy Santo Tomás in downtown San José, fits this description:

Hotel Santo Tomás, Avenida 7, Calles 3/5, tel. (011-506) 255-0448, fax 222-3950. www.hotelsantotomas.com, info@hotelsantotomas.com

20 rooms, all with private bath. $60 to $70 single/$70 to $105 double, including breakfast.

The Santo Tomás has matured in just a few years into one of San José's finer small hotels. Guest rooms in this classic coffee planter's house, all different, have been thoroughly updated. Most have fourteen-foot ceilings, skylights, and convection ventilation, some have extensive tongue-and-groove woodwork, and all have one or two good queen-sized beds, huge dressers (reproductions), phones, and modern tiled bathrooms, some with tubs. Art work and plants decorate guest rooms and all public areas. The patio-bar, where the buffet breakfast is served, is open to hotel guests until 10 p.m., and is one of those nooks where travellers naturally come together to exchange experiences, advice and tall tales. A cozier television nook is available upstairs. Security is excellent, laundry service available by weight.

[ Impeccably kept, with a well-trained staff willing to help guests in every way possible from the moment of arrival, down to making hotel reservations throughout the country and arranging day trips and car rentals.

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Other hotels are described in more detail in the printed version of this guide, available from Passport Press:

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BETTER HOTELS—TOWARD THE AIRPORT

<>Hotel Camino Real Inter-Continental

Hotel Meliá Cariari

Hotel Herradura

Costa Rica Marriott

Hotel San José Palacio

MODERATE HOTELS—TOWARD THE AIRPORT

Hampton Inn

Hotel del Aeropuerto

BETTER HOTELS—WEST END

Hotel Meliá Corobicí

Hotel Ejecutivo Napoleón

Hotel Parque del Lago

Hotel Torremolinos

Smaller Hotels

Hotel Grano de Oro

 

BETTER HOTELS—DOWNTOWN

Hotel Aurola Holiday Inn

Hotel Villa Tournón

Hotel Balmoral

Gran Hotel Costa Rica

Hotel Presidente

Smaller Luxury Hotels

Hotel L'Ambiance

La Casa Verde de Amón

D'Raya Vida

MODERATE HOTELS—WEST END

Hotel Rincón del Valle

Hotel Ambassador

Apartotel La Sabana

Smaller Moderate Hotels, West End

Hotel Petit Victoria

MODERATE HOTELS—DOWNTOWN

Hotel Royal Garden

Hotel Plaza

Hotel Diplomat

Hotel Costa Rica Morazán

Hotel Amstel Amón

Hotel del Rey

Hotel Amón Park Plaza

Hotel Don Carlos

Gran Hotel Doña Inés

Best Western Downtown

Hotel La Gran Vía

Hotel Alameda

Hotel Royal Dutch

Hotel Doral

Hotel Talamanca

Diana's Inn

Smaller Moderate Hotels, Downtown

Hotel Santo Tomás  (see above)

Hemingway Inn

La Amistad Inn

Hotel Rey

BUDGET HOTELS

<>Hotel Cacts

Hotel Ritz and Pensión Continental

Hotel Galilea

Pensión de La Cuesta

Hotel Fortuna

Hotel Bienvenido

Petit Hotel

Casa Ridgway

EASTERN SAN JOSE

Toruma Youth Hostel

Apartotel Los Yoses

Hotel D'Galah

Hotel Ave del Paraíso

WEST OF SAN JOSE

Hotel Mirador Pico Blanco

Posada Pegasus

Tara Resort Hotel

BED AND BREAKFAST

Bed-and-Breakfasts are now a movement in San José. Whereas a few used to operate discreetly and largely by word of mouth at the time of my last edition, there are now scores of B&Bs in San José, the Central Valley, and, to a lesser degree, throughout the provinces.

If nothing else, B&Bs are welcome because they relieve the shortage of moderately priced rooms in a country where new room capacity is largely at the high end.

But B&Bs can be more. If you'd like to settle in for a while, rather than going in a rush from place to place; learn where to find a cheap glass of beer and companions with whom to spend the afternoon; find out where to buy fresh-baked buns for a dime, and who sells empanadas from her kitchen, and where the local bus stops are, then bed-and-breakfasts might be more your speed than formal hotels.

And they are also sometimes less. Remember that you're staying in somebody's home. Your hosts may take a personal interest in you, and if that is not welcome in your own case, a more conventional hotel might be more suitable. Credit cards are not accepted, and tours and travel services might not be available, though there are now some services that cater exclusively to the clients of B&Bs (for example, a gentleman who offers horseback excursions through the forests above Escazú, a private guide with his own van, among others). A swanky in-house restaurant, midnight room service and comings and goings at odd hours are, of course, out of the question.

Here's a sampling of bed-and-breakfasts, mostly outside the core area of San José (others are listed under downtown accommodations, above). In most cases, you'll have to take a taxi out, or arrange a pickup at a mutually agreed-upon landmark. Please, please, do not show up at any B&B without a reservation. Capacity is limited in every case, and because B&Bs represent such a good value, many are full or nearly full throughout the year.

The Victoria Inn, Moravia

Park Place,  Escazú,

Posada del Bosque, Escazú

Posada El Quijote,  Escazú

Villa Escazú

Bed and Breakfast Associations

The above are some of the B&Bs that I've looked at in person. But there are many more. Since most are private homes, rather than hotels, you won't find them on official lodging lists.

Once you enter a bed-and-breakfast network, you can pretty well be taken care of for your entire stay in the country, with referrals to lodging places and compatible people along your route.

For more bed-and-breakfast listings, see "Country Lodging," at the end of the next chapter.

The above are "dedicated" country-style B & Bs, in which the whole household often functions around the bed-and-breakfast business.

Arrangements can also be made to stay in spare rooms in private homes, where families are living working and workaday lives, by

• consulting newspaper ads,

• by making living arrangements through a language school (in which case nobody will speak much English). This is one of the more inexpensive routes to take. See language-school listings, page 94.
• by using specialized agencies. One such is Bells' Home Hospitality. Other agencies advertise in the Tico Times.

More Choices

There are other hotels than those listed above, in outlying areas, some of them very attractive. But I think that most first-time visitors will want to stay near the central area of San José, and my listings are slanted accordingly.

For longer visits, consult the ads for guest houses and furnished apartments and houses in the Tico Times. But be warned that furnishings and facilities will often look cold and harsh to outside eyes.

COUNTRY LODGING NEAR SAN JOSE

If you have a rental car, or don't mind travelling by taxi or local bus (neither of which is challenging or expensive in Costa Rica), there are some attractive and even superb lodging places in the Central Valley to consider. All are less than 30 minutes from the very center of San José, yet provide an atmosphere considerably removed from that of the capital. I've grouped listings of country hotels and inns at the end of the next chapter, starting on page 220.

CAMPING

The only trailer park currently operating near San José is in San Antonio de Belén, eight kilometers west of the city, not far from the airport. Take the San Antonio turnoff from the Cañas expressway, then continue two kilometers to the entrance, opposite the Seaboard Marine depot—there is currently no sign. This is a pleasant parking area with lots of trees, though facilities are limited. Rates are around $10 per day. Telephone 441-2270 or 441-2595.

RESTAURANTS

Some very good food, indeed, is to be found in and near San José. Numerous restaurants specialize in Swiss, Central European, Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese cuisine, as well as steaks and seafood. There are many clean, reasonably priced luncheonettes (locally known as sodas), and a very few restaurants even serve native Costa Rican specialties.

The best chefs take advantage of the beef, fish (usually corvina, or sea bass), chicken and fresh fruits and vegetables that are abundant at all times of the year. Shrimp and lobster are usually available and are attractively served in a number of restaurants, but are no bargain—that innocent shrimp appetizer suggested by your waiter will usually run well over $10. Drinkable wines and imported liquors are quite expensive—double or triple the American price—so you might want to consider the excellent Costa Rican beers or local rums and other spirits.

Most restaurants open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and for dinner from 6:30 or 7 p.m. to 10 or 10:30 p.m. Luncheonettes and many of the inexpensive restaurants are open throughout the day. A good hour for dinner in San José is 7:30 p.m. or so.

Some of the better dining places are open in the evenings only. But at those that serve lunch, you'll often find an all-inclusive special for about the same price as a main course alone. Look for the almuerzo ejecutivo.

My selection of restaurants is mostly limited to the downtown and Paseo Colón areas, near the major hotels. Also take a look at the restaurants mentioned under hotels, above.

But don't limit yourself to these. There are many more good choices, both in central San José and in the suburbs. Consult the ads and the "On the Town" column in the Tico Times, and the reviews in Costa Rica Today.

Or walk into any place that looks attractive. You generally don't have to worry about the safety of the food.

DOWNTOWN

Chalet Suizo, Avenida 1, Calles 5/7. The Swiss Chalet is nicely atmospheric, with wainscotted walls, wooden beams, brick hearth and costumed waiters. The house steak, covered with ham and cheese, is excellent, and there are fondues, goulash, smoked pork chops, seafood items, fine French and Italian desserts, and much more. Most main courses run $6 and up.

Isle de France, Calle 7, Avenidas Central/2. An excellent little French restaurant. Not at all cheap for San José, but moderate as French restaurants go. A daily complete lunch goes for about $10, an à la carte meal for much more.

Casino Español, Calle 9, Avenidas Central/2. The gastronomic tour continues with fine Spanish cuisine. Specialties are quail in wine, tripe, Asturian fabada (stew), and paella. Elegant atmosphere and service. Entrees $6 to $10, fixed-price lunch for $5.

For more formal but still friendly Spanish food, turn the corner to Goya, Calle 1, Avenidas 5/7. Rabbit in wine, beef with mushrooms, paella, $6 to $9 for a main course, tablecloths, arches and atmosphere included.

Hotels: L'Ambiance, Calle 13 no. 949, in a restored mansion, has the most elegant dining room of any downtown hotel, in a garden-style setting. The service is attentive, the menu changing, but emphasizing continental fare, at $15 to $20.

The Hotel Don Carlos, Calle 9, Avenidas 7/9, serves a daily lunch amid the plants in its pleasant courtyard patio. Choose from lasagne, pasta, or a Tico-style rice-and-beans-with-something for about $6, sometimes to the accompaniment of guitar music.

At the Hotel La Gran Vía, Avenida Central, Calles 1/3, the restaurant is a quiet, light corner up on the third floor. The lunch of the day goes for about $5, and there are assorted complete breakfasts for $3. This is a good place to eavesdrop on long-term foreign residents as they plot their projects.

Among other hotels, the Costa Rica Morazán (Avenida 1, Calle 7) is notable for quality preparation and presentation, though not originality. A complete dinner goes for about $12. Lunch, for $7 or so, can include such main courses as sea bass meunière or a Tico-style combination plate or chicken in fruit sauce. The Hotel Villa Tournón, off the downtown beaten track, also has some fans.

Probably no city in the hemisphere has as many Chinese eateries for its size as San José. Chinese food generally runs in the medium price range. And you pay extra for rice.

One of the better Chinese restaurants is the Nueva China, another is El Ave Fénix, both in San Pedro (see below).

In the downtown area, a good choice is Fulusu, Calle 7, Avenidas Central/2. Spicy Szechuan-style dishes, large bowls of soup and assorted appetizers and steamed dumplings are served. Any main course is large enough to share among two persons. Under $10 for a meal.

Lung Mun, Calle 1, Avenidas 5/7, serves Tico-style food at its lunch buffet, for about $4. A la carte American and Cantonese food runs $4 to $6 for a main course. If you have a hankering for shrimp, you can get it in your chow mein here for much less than elsewhere.

Another good downtown choice, with both western and oriental choices (including Szechuan plates), and an extended dim sum breakfast, is the restaurant of the Hotel Royal Garden, Calle Central and Avenida Central. Lunch costs just $5.

Two good Chinese restaurants are located on Calle 11, between Avenidas 6 and 8. Tin Jo offers Gen. Hon's chicken (with cashews, served in bird's nest), sweet and sour pork and seafood dishes, as well as more ordinary Cantonese dishes, at $5 and up for a main course, $10 and up for large shrimp. Down the street, Don Wang's specialties, such as diced chicken with peanuts and hot peppers, are spicier, and prices are reasonable.

La Hacienda, Calle 7, Avenidas Central/2, is one of many restaurants in San José specializing in charcoal-broiled steaks and chops. Mixed grills, steaks or luncheon specials for $8 and up. Kamakiri steak house, Calle Central, Avenida 11, is more lively, with music. La Esmeralda, Avenida 2, Calles 5/7, is a lively, clean, cathedral-like, open-to-the-street establishment with strolling Mexican musicians. Steaks from $5, set lunches for $3 or less, including a beverage.

Balcón de Europa, Avenida 9, Calles Central/1, is more than a restaurant, it's a tradition. The establishment, extremely popular, serves Italian-style meat main courses, such as scallopine, for $7. House wine, at $1.50 a glass, is more inexpensive than just about anywhere else in San José. The daily lunch special (example: veal in wine, soup, dessert), pastas and small pizzas cost about $5. Native combination plates are offered as well. For the price, the food is more attractively served than you might expect, and you get real vegetables, not just rice.

A charming hole-in-the-wall that also serves Italian food is San Remo, Calle 2, Avenidas 3/5, with house spaghetti, lasagne, and standard Costa Rican fare, with nothing over $5, including some shrimp dishes. Capuccino, pastries and breakfast are served as well.

You could spend weeks in San José and think that native-style food didn't exist. La Cocina de Leña (The Wood Stove), in the El Pueblo shopping center north of downtown, is one of a few places where you can enjoy home cooking. Tiny tables, piles of firewood, whitewashed walls, subdued lighting, and decorations of colorful enamelware and gourd beakers all re-create the atmosphere of a dark, smoky country kitchen. The menu—printed on a paper bag—is a lesson in traditional Costa Rican cooking. Some items: olla de carne (meat stew), mondongo en salsa (ox in tomato sauce), stuffed pepper or cabbage, chilasquiles (tortillas filled with meat), pozol (corn soup), and the old standby, gallo pinto (rice and beans). Most entrees are served with tortillas and beans, and run $4 to $6, or you can get the complete lunch special for $5. To get here, take the Calle Blancos bus from Calle 3, Avenidas 5/7.

Also in El Pueblo are Lancer's Steak House, which offers complete, low-priced lunches; and numerous other eating and drinking spots.

Cafés: There aren't many of these—San José's air quality is not conducive to relaxing at streetside—but two are reminiscent of Europe. The Parisien Café of the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, Calle 3 at Avenida 2, provides sidewalk seating with a view to the national theater, the Plaza de la Cultura, and the continuing activity of vendors and buskers in the adjacent small park. A fine place for extended sitting, reading, or people-watching at any hour—it's open through the night. More elegant is the café across the street in the National Theater itself where, at marble-topped tables, surrounded by works of art and bathed in recorded chamber music, you can enjoy a sandwich and coffee for less than $3, or a luncheon special for slightly more.

Sodas are San José's all-purpose coffee shops and diners, where in simple, soda-shop surroundings you can enjoy anything from a cup of coffee or a drink to a sandwich or a steak. The blue-plate luncheon special usually runs $4 or less with tax and service. Similar fare and clean surroundings are available at almost any soda in San José. Among them are:

Soda Central, Avenida 1, Calles 3/5. A hole in the wall with cheap sandwiches and drinks.

Soda Palace, Avenida 2, Calle 2, on Parque Central. Good seats for watching the main square. Mainly drinks and sandwiches. A block to the east, the soda of the Melico Salazar theater, La Perla, at Avenida 2, Calle Central, offers Spanish items such as paella, as well as set lunches, and is open through the night for drinks and bocas.

Risas, Calle 1, Avenidas Central/1, is somewhere between a soda and a restaurant/bar. Ceviche (marinated-fish cocktail), stews and steaks for $5 and up, fishburgers and American-style (large) hamburgers in several decorations for $2.50, and even meatball heroes are served. Open 11 a.m. to midnight.

Also somewhere in-between is Spoon, on Avenida Central, Calles 5/7, with light lunches and guilty desserts. About $6 for lunch with lasagna, a salad or the plat du jour, or $3 for something gooey with coffee.

Confetti's, Avenida Central, Calle 15, is a modern and clean restaurant-bar along soda lines, good for a drink and a rest after a tour of the National Museum.

Chicken: Pollo Campesino, Calle 7, Avenidas 2/4, serves chicken roasted on a spit over a coffee-wood fire, and many a resident swears by the result. A few bucks gets you a quarter-chicken with tortillas and pickled carrots and chiles. Salad, fries and beer are available as well. Look for the red sign, just off Avenida 2. This is a cozy, informal, crowded hole-in-the-wall with a beer-barrel bar, and you'll probably think I've sent you to the wrong place. If somebody in your party doesn't like chicken, ask for the Chinese menu.

Manolo's, Avenida Central, Calles Central/2, a favorite of many long-time San José residents, is open 24 hours to serve whatever you like in whatever atmosphere you choose. Proceed no further than the open-to-the-street snack joint at ground level for greasy, finger-shaped Mexican donuts (churros) and a cup of coffee, then hurry on your way. Or stop for more than a few minutes on the balcony one flight up, for the lunch of the day (under $5), Manolo's club-like special sandwich, croissants with orange cream, breakfast combinations, or something else from the extensive but not expensive menu (even a filet mignon weighs in at under $6), with quick, coffee-shop service. For finer tastes, ascend a short staircase to yet another dining area, large and formal and overlooking the street through large windows, where sirloin tips and other formally prepared steaks and chops go for $10 and up.

Fast Food

McDonald's, familiar and reliable, is at Calle 4, Avenidas Central/1. In addition to Big Macs and fries, they have refreshing iced tea with lemon. Be prepared for some sticker shock. Prices are somewhat higher than in the United States, and much higher than those of comparable products with local names. Another location is at Avenida Central, Calles 3/5, opposite the Plaza of Culture. And if you don't feel like displacing yourself, have someone call McExpress at 286-0101 for delivery.

McDonald's clones include Hardee's, Avenida Central, Calle 1.

Pollo Kentucky (Kentucky Fried Chicken) has outlets at Avenida 2 and Calle 6 and Calle 1/Avenida 3. The colonel's lunch runs about $4.

Archi's, Avenida Central, Calles 3/5, is a cross between McD's and the Colonel, serving both cow and fowl.

Burger King and Taco Bell have outlets on Calle 5, Avenidas Central/2, opposite the tourist office, and there's another Burger King on Avenida 1, Calles 1/3. Taco Bell often has a daily special.

Last and not so fast is Pizza Hut, serving pizzas, subs and spaghetti, at Avenida 1, Calles 3/5; and Calle 4, Avenidas Central/2. More expensive than the U.S. original.

Vegetarian

This is not an easily achieved style of eating in Costa Rica. Even your beans and rice are likely to contain generous amounts of lard.

Soda Vishnu, Calle 1, Avenidas 4/6, is vegetarian, with fruit and vegetable cocktails, and an Indian-flavored lunch special for $2. Govinda, Avenida 2, Calles 9/11, also puts up assorted non-meat combination plates.

Nutrisoda, Avenida 2, Calle 3, downstairs in the arcade next to the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, is vegetable-oriented.

Inexpensive Food

There are cheap eateries all around San José, including the sodas mentioned above. Almost any modern office building has a ground-floor luncheonette where clerical workers take a quick and affordable lunch. Additional choices:

Restaurant Poás, Avenida 7, Calles 3/5, is a jungle of palms, bromeliads, ferns, begonias, corkscrew vines, and parrots, with more natural life than you'll see on a bad-luck or rainy day in the wild. Blue-plate lunch specials go for $3 or less. Some, like casado (meat with cabbage and rice and beans) and olla de carne (stew) are home-style Costa Rican classics. Breakfast and dinner are served as well.

Candilejas, Avenida 4, Calles 1/3, a cut above a soda, is usually crowded with secretaries having a budget meal at café-sized tables. Choose from native-style steak, casado, and the like for $3 and up, or the daily blue-plate special for only $2. Food is simple, but tasty.

For a whole array of cheap, inelegant eateries, hasten to the Central Market, Calle 6, Avenida 1, where you can fill your stomach with cabbage, rice, beans, eggs, and/or stew for $2.

Self-Service

The point-and-shoot method of ordering is useful if you're in a hurry, or if your Spanish produces unpredictable results.

Chips, on Calle 5 opposite the Plaza of Culture, is a step up from most fast-food joints, with lasagna, chicken, omelettes, salads, a changing assortment of specialties, and pizza. $4 and up for lunch, less for the daily special.

Goya, Calle 1, Avenidas 5/7, Lung Mun, Calle 1, Avenidas 5/7, mentioned above, and sometimes other restaurants, have cafeteria set-ups at lunchtime where you can fill your plate for $3 or less.

Snacks

Pops, Avenida Central, Calles 1/3 (and just about everywhere else in San José) has the best ice cream in Costa Rica.

Pastelería Schmidt, Avenida 2 at Calle_4, sells excellent breads and pastries, which may be eaten in, with a cup of coffee, or carried out. Another location (among many) is at Avenida Central and Calle 11.

San José's ubiquitous fruit carts sell bananas and pineapple and papaya at almost every corner. At Christmas, they offer apples and grapes, which are great and expensive delicacies. And there are many hamburger and hot dog vendors as well.

WEST END

La Masia de Triquell, Avenida 2, Calle 40. Spanish and Continental cuisine in a large old house with plenty of arches and stuccoed walls. Paella, sea bass in bearnaise sauce and steak in garlic sauce starting at about $10.

La Bastille, Paseo Colón at Calle 22, is a fine French restaurant, the oldest in San José, where food preparation is painstaking. Assorted soups such as consommé with sherry, appetizers like caviar, and classic beef preparations as a main course: stroganoff, filet mignon, tenderloin provençal in Café de Paris sauce; also sea bass in an interesting wine sauce with apples, grapes and peaches. $15 and up.

La Piazzetta, Paseo Colón, Calle 40, features a long list of specialties from the regions of Italy. This means not only familiar and exotic pastas, but assorted dumplings, bean dishes, and delicately cooked steaks and fish in sauces composed variously of cheese, mushrooms and truffles. From about $12, closed Sundays.

Also serving elegant Italian cuisine, but with more familiar fare, such as lasagne and fettucine, is Emilia Romagna, Paseo Colón, Calle 32/34, tel. 233-2843. The setting one of brick arches and plants, and the elegant sustenance is accompanied by breads and flavored butters (salmon and garlic-coriander, among others) prepared on-site. About $20 and up for a meal. Jazz is played every night from 8 p.m. (minimum two drinks).

Lubnan, Paseo Colón at Calle 22, is a neighborhood Lebanese eatery, basic, and a break from rice, with offerings of schwarma, kebabs, and cracked-wheat salads.

Machu Picchu, 32 Calle, Avenidas 1/3, opposite the Beirut, emphasizes Peruvian staples: seafood, potatoes, and corn. Main courses, such as sea bass in wine or with garlic sauce, picante de mariscos (a sort of seafood casserole with garlic, onion, cheese and olives—excellent!) cost $5 and up, and can be supplemented with appetizers like stuffed potatoes or ceviche (seafood cocktail) for a dollar or two; though, as elsewhere, the giant shrimp will lighten your wallet. The decor is nautical, with nets and turtle shells, and the cooking and atmosphere are more home-style than elegant.

The Grano de Oro, the hotel in a restored mansion at Calle 30, Avenidas 2/4, serves light items on a glassed-in porch and out on the patio, from noon to 10 p.m., among them chicken lasagne, quiche, "enchilada pie," and attractive salads (though, as with any fine restaurant, the menu changes regularly). This is a good place to decompress from any urban hassles.

Antojitos Cancun, Paseo Colón, Calles 24/26, next to Pizza Hut, downstairs, has Tex-Mex tacos, enchiladas and burritos in assorted combinations for $2 to $6, and all the beer you need to wash it down. Kiddy seats available.

Lobster's Inn, Paseo Colón at Calle 24. Good seafood. Lobster and shrimp are expensive—well over $20—but sea bass (corvina) is reasonable at under $10, served in a variety of ways, and non-fish courses are available.

Ana, Paseo Colón, Calles 24/26. An unpretentious and inexpensive Italian restaurant serving lasagna, spaghetti, veal and non-Italian dishes for $4 and up. Pleasant surroundings, especially in the upstairs dining room. And a couple of blocks away, at the corner of Avenida 2 and Calle 24, serves all kinds of pizzas starting at $4, along with lasagna.

Arirang, at Paseo Colón and Calle 38, in the Centro Colón building, is your standard Korean family restaurant. You're served various combinations of pork or beef or chicken with vegetables, or tempura, at Formica tables. It's very good, and at $5 or so for a main course, the price is right. Open 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Soda Pintico, in the same building as Arirang, on the ground floor, is a rare eatery in this neighborhood that serves Costa Rican-style food, in this case in luncheonette surroundings. Order gallo pinto with eggs, tacos, enyucados, cheese-filled gallos, or the daily complete lunch. It will be hard to spend more than $4. Just make sure you arrive by 4 p.m.

Chinese eateries are less plentiful in the west end than elsewhere in San José, but you'll find a couple on Calle 32 just north of Colón. Jardin Feliz has a Szechuan-style menu, with the likes of spicy chicken and vegetables for $4 to $6.

Los Ranchos, near the east end of Sabana Norte (just behind Burger King—go around the block) is currently the top-rated steak house in San José. Tender beef comes in assorted cuts with jalapeño or less exotic sauces, and a salad bar; and grilled chicken and seafood are available as well. $10 and up, set lunch about $6. Open for lunch, and from 7 p.m. for dinner, continuously on Saturday, to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Soda Tapia, Calle 42, Avenida 2, opposite Metropolitan Park. More a café than a soda, good for sandwiches and fruit salad at the outdoor tables.

Fast Food: There's a McDonald's on Calle 42, a couple of blocks south of Paseo Colón. Pollo Kentucky (Kentucky Fried Chicken) has an outlet at Paseo Colón, Calles 32/34 which, whatever its culinary virtues, is a common reference point for giving directions. Pizza Hut is at Paseo Colón and Calle 28, and there's a Subway down the street. The Burger King on Sabana Norte, a block west of the Hotel Corobicí, has a large children's play area with Ikea-style plastic balls.

Self-Service: Auto Servicio Colón, Calle 34, Avenidas Central/1, is a bar with a self-service food counter.

San José 2000 is not a restaurant, but a shopping center in suburban Uruca. If you're staying at the Hotel Irazú next door, you'll find some good alternative eating here. La Fuente de los Mariscos offers seafood at prices much lower than elsewhere in the city: shrimp from $5, depending on the size, a combination dish for the same amount. El Tapatío, a Mexican restaurant and bar, serves several kinds of mole, tacos and burritos for about $6 to 8, accompanied by beer and recorded jazz. And there are a Chinese restaurant (El Dragón—surprisingly good) and a steak house. From the Paseo Colón area, it's a short hop by taxi or the Alajuela bus to San José 2000 along the Cañas expressway.

Escazú

Farther west, and south, in suburban Escazú, is the El Churrasco steak house (tel. 228-32, "150 metros al sur del Centro Comercial Blvd. Rosa). Look for a sign pointing the way from Escazú's main street. Here you get brick surroundings and pottery decorations. Steak comes in assorted cuts and sizes, draft beer is served, and there are salads and appetizers—and music on Friday and Saturday evenings. $10 and up. Drive, or take the Escazú bus from Avenida 1, Calles 16/18, San José.

The María Alexandra restaurant, in the "apartotel" of the same name, nearby, is also excellent. Chef Hans, of durable fame, cooked for John F. Kennedy when he came to Costa Rica. The establishment is known for its fine sauces, and if you like shrimp, this is your best bet in the area.

Lukas, an informal eatery in the same part of town, has Costa Rican-style items (tacos, casado combination plates), as well as more elegantly prepared steaks and fish, and also gets a crowd for beer, wine and elaborate desserts. About $10, less for the lunch special.

SAN PEDRO/EAST END

This is not an area that most visitors get to on their first trip. But you'll go out this way to be near a university crowd, or if you visit the insect museum. If you're not already planning to be in the immediate area, call first to check if the restaurant is open.

Le Chandelier offers finest continental dining in San José. Meats and poultry are served in delicate sauces, vegetables are crisp, and service and presentation are faultless. On a visit here, I had one of the specials of the evening, breasts of chicken in morel sauce, which, aside from being delicious, was easily double the portion I would expect in Manhattan or Montreal. Paté, a cheese plate and cookies come courtesy of the house. Regular items include Caesar salad for two, three tenderloins in café de Paris sauce, and sea bass quenelle. Le Chandelier's exterior is unpretentious, but the beamed ceilings, fireplace and rough-stuccoed walls inside suggest the campagne; additional seating is on the terrace. You'll spend at least $20 for dinner—it's worth it—but the tab can run much, much higher. From the traffic circle in San Pedro (Calle Central at the bypass highway), go south two blocks past Burger King, then west, then take the first turn south. Call 225-3980 to reserve.

The Nueva China, Calle 11, Avenida Central, San Pedro, is everybody's recommended Chinese restaurant. The decor and ambience are authentically oriental, right down to the imported tile. The menu has two sections, Chinese and "international" (if you want it). Peking duck can be prepared with a day's notice, but on a walk-in basis, you can try shrimp soup, garlic-honey chicken, or chicken Szechuan. Main courses come in two sizes, and run $5 to $12. Remember to order your rice separately if you want it. And insist on spicy if you like it that way. Chinese white wine is available. My fortune cookie: "La prisa puede llevarle a cometer errores importantes." To reach the Nueva China, take the San Pedro bus from Avenida 2, Calles 3/5.

A bit nearer to downtown, El Ave Fénix, on Avenida Central on the way into San Pedro, a block east of the traffic circle, gets high marks from many connaisseurs of Chinese cuisine.

Other good restaurants out this way include Las Malvinas (tel. 224-3131), a well-known seafood house farther down Avenida Central in Curridabat.

VIEWS

The mountains that tower to the south of San José offer views that rate as Empire State Equivalents, and the rare opportunity to appreciate, from solid ground, vistas of valleys and towns and clouds clinging to peaks, or the nighttime lightscape of lights blazing across San José, and twinkling on up hazily discerned volcanic slopes. And you can enjoy the show to the accompaniment of some unpretentiously good food. About five kilometers past San Antonio de Escazú (see page 193), on a winch-class road that loses its pavement, is Tiquicia, an adobe, peasant-style house with terrace, where meats are cooked over wood and charcoal. For less than $10 you can have a combination plate or chicken and rice, with beer (not too much!). If you're driving, turn right at the Miramontes restaurant on the way up to San Antonio, then inquire for "Tee-KEE-sya" at every turn.

Above Aserrí (see page 191), on the road to Santa María de Dota, is Mirador Ram Luna, a somewhat more formal establishment with the appearance, at first glance, of a small hilltop estate. Inside, the large dining area is glassed-in, with ferns and broadleaf plants providing a greenhouse air. A fireplace serves to burn off any chill at the 1825-meter altitude. Here you enjoy yet another slice of Central Valley view, along with excellent steak-house fare, reasonably priced at $5 and up for a main course. The Mexican-style sirloin, and steak stuffed with cheese and ham, are both good choices. Open for lunch and dinner every day. If you're not driving, Ram Luna is easiest to reach by taking a bus to Aserrí, then a taxi.

BARS AND CLUBS

Drinking is a pastime that most Costa Ricans feel comfortable with, and the visitor, in turn, will feel comfortable in any halfway-decent-looking bar. All are reasonably priced, with domestic drinks for $1 or less. Bocas (snacks) are served on the side, sometimes at a price in the fancier establishments. Many of the downtown bars are good places to rendezvous with other foreigners. Names and addresses may alter, but among recent choices:

Esmeralda, Avenida 2, Calles 5/7, mentioned above as a restaurant, is popular at night for drinking to a background of mariachi music.

Marley's, Avenida 1, Calles 5/7, serves chili con carne and chili dogs, Virginia ham sandwiches, and good steaks, and keeps the television tuned to crucial games. Bocas are free from 4 to 6 p.m.

Tropical Tiny's, Avenida 2, Calles C9/11, heavy with red brick, is also screen-oriented.

Nashville South, Calle 5, Avenidas 1/3 is your light-wood, down-home bar where serious music is played can chili con carne and fried chicken are served.

Disco Túnel del Tiempo, Avenida Central, Calles 7/9, is a discotheque, not a bar, probably more to local tastes than yours, but centrally located.

Around the corner, the Bikini Club, Calle 7, Avenidas Central/1, has pretty waitresses. There are some gay bars in this area.

Restaurant-Taberna Poás, Avenida 7, Calles 3/5, a budget eatery during the day, does double duty as a dance hall at night, a perfect locale for a jungle fantasy out of El Grande de Coca Cola. Venture among the palms, bromeliads, ferns, begonias, corkscrew vines, and parrots, and wiggle it.

Charleston Bar, Calle 9, Avenidas 2/4 (opposite the church and around the corner from the gas station), is loaded with memorabilia of bygone days in another country. The bar at the Park Hotel, Av. 4, Calles 2/4, is a gathering spot for Americans and other foreigners on extended stays. The neighborhood is just a little bit seedy, but not in a dangerous way.

Disco Salsa 54, Calle 3, Avenidas 1/3, is just what it sounds like.

Taberna Cayuco, Calle 11, Avenidas 1/3, is said to show videos of X-rated movies, a genre banned from cinemas.

Key Largo is at Calle 7, Avenida 3, on Morazán Park is a nice, old house, and also San José's most notable prostitute pickup point. The ladies and taxis line up outside.

Bar México, Avenida 13, Calle 16, is a bright spot in a run-down neighborhood, painted on the outside in red, white and green, well-kept with polished wood tables in the arched interior. Marinated fish and snacks are served with the drinks, but the attraction is mariachi music. Open from 3 p.m., from 11 a.m. Saturday, closed Sunday. Walk from the Coca-Cola bus terminal area, or take the Barrio México bus from Avenida 2, Calles 6/8. Next to the bar is the neighborhood church, visible from many parts of San José, huge and multidomed on a bare, concrete utility-building base. Also out this way is the art-deco Liverpool Bar, with live music in the evening, in assorted genres.

Boobs are the subject at Josephine's, Avenida 9, Calles 2/4, tel. 257-2269, one of the few non-hotel clubs that put on a live dance show for dining guests. If bouncing breasts under diaphanous disguise are what you seek, you'll find them, along with steaks, chicken and lighter snacks. Drinks are not overpriced, and putas are not visibly on the prowl, which makes for a wholesome and relaxed air at San José's premier nightclub presentation.

El Cuartel de la Boca del Monte, tucked away on Avenida 1 between Calles 21 and 23, east of downtown, is a lively, late-hours bar and native-style eatery. There are full meals of steak, tripe, and fish, with salad, bean soup, fried plantains and yuca, for $6 on down; but you'll mostly come for the difficult task of keeping up with the locals at drinking. There's live music on some evenings. The name recalls an early appellation of San José.

Bromelias, a couple of blocks away at Avenida 3, Calle 23, is a bar in a recycled and modernized section of the huge customs shed that handled cargo coming in on the now-defunct railroad.

El Yugo de Oro in Cinco Esquinas, just north of downtown San José, is a favorite late-hours place for many Ticos, who enjoy the bocas (snacks). But what snacks!—cannelloni gratinée, beef cordon bleu, assorted seafood, barbecued tidbits, all served free with drinks or available as menu choices for $7 and up. A mariachi band often plays till midnight, and there are luncheon specials. Any taxi driver can take you for $2 or less. Call 257-2088 to check if they're open.

For drinking and dancing, El Pueblo shopping center, mentioned above under restaurants, has numerous bars and boîtes, ranging from intimate to multi-level, as well as trinket shops for an evening of browsing in a pleasant mock-colonial environment. Take the Calle Blancos bus from Avenida 3, Calles 5/7, or a taxi.

Head east to San Pedro to find a university crowd near the University of Costa Rica. It's more like home than you're likely to find in any other Latin American country, with coeds working the bar and tables. Drinking joints open and close, but some found recently include:

Club Cocodrilo, on Calle Central in San Pedro is a popular hangout, with continuous movies, flashing lights, videos, and a namesake over the huge bar.

Men will feel comfortable at Club Madrid, a pool hall with cheap drinks, a block east and almost two blocks north of the San Pedro church. And women will feel comfortable nearby at La Tertulia, a feminist gathering point. Don't confuse your gender.

 

THE SIGHTS OF SAN JOSE

San José does not have all that much in the way of obligatory sights to see.

If your time is short, limit your rounds to the high points: the National Theater and Plaza of Culture, the National Museum, and the Jade Museum. These can be seen in a half-day, or between excursions to the volcanoes and countryside around San José.

At a more leisurely pace, you can cover the itinerary below, and get to know the city better, in a couple of days or more. Most of the places mentioned are within a half-mile or so of the Central Park.

The Main Square. Any walking tour of San José starts at the Parque Central (the Central Park, or main square), bounded by Calles Central and 2, and Avenidas 2 and 4. Bus after city bus stops and accepts the long queues of commuters along all four edges. Horns beep incessantly and traffic slams into gear and races ahead at the change of lights on wide Avenida 2. Office buildings and advertising billboards tower overhead. But the park is an oasis in all this, a neat, gardened square where workers on their breaks and anyone with a few moments to spare will sit on benches, pass the time of day, read a book, and, perhaps, engage the visitor in conversation about such favorite themes as Costa Rican democracy, Costa Rican economic problems, Costa Rican foreign policy, and Costa Rican women. Public concerts are offered on most Sunday mornings in this musically concerned city.

Across Calle Central from the park is the Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral), one of the many undistinguished urban churches of relatively recent vintage in Costa Rica. Cream-colored, blocky on the outside, with neo-classical pediment and columns at the entry, the Cathedral has a massive, barrel-arched interior. Much more interesting is the ecclesiastical administration building attached to the rear of the Cathedral, done in the charming and disappearing nineteenth-century San José style, with a European face—in this instance stone-cased windows and pediments straight out of Renaissance Italy—and a red tin roof.

On the north side of the square, at the corner of Calle Central, is the restored Melico Salazar theater, a period piece of pre-depression tropical urban architecture, with fluted Corinthian columns, balconies, and stuccoed relief sculptures in the pediments.

National Theater. A couple of blocks down Avenida 2, at the corner of Calle 3, stands the Teatro Nacional (National Theater), which over the years has come to embody San José and its self-image as a cultural center. And with good reason, for a more impressive public structure is to be found in no city for a thousand miles to the north or south.

The construction of the theater came about in a fit of national pique, after an opera company cancelled a performance in San José in 1890, for lack of a suitable hall. In response, a cultural tax was levied on coffee exports, and later on all imports. The appropriate experts were engaged, and the theater was completed seven years after the insult.

Though sometimes advertised as a replica of the Paris or Milan opera, the block-long National Theater is neither, and stands on its own. Columns and pediment and window arches are carved into the massive stone blocks of its majestic Italianate neo-classical facade, which is crowned with allegorical statues of Dance, Music and Fame (copies of the originals, which are protected from pollution elsewhere). The sides of the building are less elegant, faced with cement plaster, and the tin roofing is purely San José.

Astride the entrance to the theater stand statues of Beethoven and the Spanish dramatist Calderón de la Barca; in the vestibule are allegorical figures of Comedy and Tragedy. In the Costa Rican tradition of importing and assimilating Culture, these were executed by European masters. Belgians designed the building and fabricated its steel structural members. And Germans, Spaniards and Italians collaborated on the architectural work and interior decoration. But Costa Rica is present as well. The sculpture called Heroes of Misery, in the vestibule, is the work of native Juan Ramón Bonilla; and the stairway paintings depict themes of Costa Rican life and commerce—coffee and banana harvest and shipment, and local fruits and flowers. The parquet flooring in much of the theater is made from native hardwoods.

Especially impressive inside the theater building are the foyer, upstairs, with its three-part ceiling painting representing Dawn, Day and Night; the interior marble staircases; the gilt decorations throughout; and, of course, the multitiered great hall.

The National Theater is the locale of regular concerts by the national orchestra, which was transformed into a full-time professional and teaching organization in 1971, with the acquisition of a number of foreign musicians; and of performances by the youth orchestra, and native and foreign drama companies and artists. Tickets are sold in advance at the kiosk alongside the theater, for as little as $2. Admission for sightseeing costs about $1.

Opposite the entrance to the National Theater is a little park where vendors of handicrafts—model oxcarts, dolls, jewelry and leather—display their wares. Adjacent is the stately Gran Hotel Costa Rica, with its pleasant ground-floor café. There's another café in the theater itself.

Central Avenue. North of the theater, the stretch of Avenida Central for several blocks in each direction is a pedestrian mall, where vehicles are restricted or banned for part of the day. In place of cars, the avenue fills up with shoppers, along with buskers, and merchants of a hundred products and services that you weren't looking for, but which you will no doubt find useful. A great press mounted on a truck squeezes sugarcane for juice. Vendors peddle ices, and roast sweet corn, and flowers and toys and sunglasses and lottery tickets and shoe laces and fruit. Lamination of identification cards and engraving of jewelry and valuables are performed on the spot, for minimal fees.

Plaza of Culture. Along Avenida Central between Calles 3 and 5 is the Plaza de la Cultura (Plaza of Culture). The commercial buildings that once occupied the site were razed to create an open expanse decorated with flowers and benches, and platforms, where outdoor performances are sometimes given.

To preserve the broad vista to the adjacent National Theater, a complex of exhibit halls has been constructed below ground level. Foremost of the displays is the exquisite gold collection of the Banco Central de Costa Rica, with over a thousand pre-Columbian decorations, mostly from burial sites in the southern Pacific coastal region of Costa Rica. Also included are jade ornaments from Costa Rica and other countries. And there are pre-Columbian ceramics, modern art and numismatic items as well. Currently open only from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Near the entrance to the exhibit area, at the corner of Avenida Central and Calle 5, is the information center of the Costa Rican Tourist Board (Instituto Costarricense de Turismo), where the personnel are quite helpful in answering questions, providing maps, schedules and brochures, and generally orienting the visitor. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

National Museum. Six blocks east of the Plaza of Culture, and up the hill known as the Cuesta de Moras, is the National Museum (Museo Nacional), housed in the old Bellavista Fortress, once the headquarters of the now-defunct army.

Of major interest in the museum is the pre-Columbian collection, one of the largest of its kind. All of the materials are shown quite logically, divided into the three major cultural zones of the country, and arranged chronologically for each. Many but not all of the exhibits are labelled in both English and Spanish, and a map helps to explain Costa Rica's importance as a meeting point of three cultural traditions. It's fascinating to see in a few minutes the progress of pottery in the Nicoya region, over a period of more than a thousand years, from plain and primitive figurines to the exquisite polychrome vases in anthropomorphic form that were manufactured at the time of the Spanish conquest. In the Atlantic region, the figures are less sophisticated, in buff and brown, but no less beautiful. The Diquis region is represented by its own pottery styles, and by its fabled, near-perfect stone spheres, some of which are up to two-and-a-half meters in diameter. There are, as well, examples of goldwork, including pendants and pectoral discs, and jade from the northern half of Costa Rica.

The National Museum also has an extensive collection of colonial furniture; printing presses and historical imprints from the era of independence; period costumes; portraits of presidents and politicians; and a cellar of religious art, including saints in wood and plaster, vestments, and paintings executed over the period from colonial times to the present. An ethnohistory exhibit bespeaks a growing awareness by modern Costa Rica of multicultural contributions to national life. A geology exhibit illustrates tectonic plates, and explains the tremors you may feel from time to time.

Bellavista fortress itself is one of the few colonial-style structures in San José, dominating the central part of the city, massive, towered, gray and brusque on the outside, pocked by bullet holes from the 1948 civil war, but quite lovely from the inner gardened courtyard, with tile roofs, whitewashed walls, and covered passageways. All of the exhibit rooms have high, beamed ceilings. On sale at the museum shop are examples of Talamanca Indian weaving, bows and arrows, and gourd crafts, which are some of the best souvenirs available in San José. Inquire as well about museum-sponsored excursions to sight quetzals or sparking volcanoes.

The National Museum is open every day except Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Sunday from 9 a.m.) There is a small admission charge.

Plaza of Democracy. Across Calle 15 from the National Museum is the Plaza of Democracy, dedicated in 1989 to mark 100 years of popularly elected governments. Like the Plaza of Culture, this open area was created by demolishing houses and offices, replacing them with terraces and amphitheater climbing the hill, suitable for cultural activities, and, with the Legislative Assembly nearby, for political demonstrations as well. Just to the north across Avenida Central, the legislature is a cream-colored, Moorish-style building. You may go in the side door and look around, but it's all quite unprepossessing and uninteresting, except, perhaps, as an artifact of Costa Rica's rather un-Latin non-aggrandizement of its political institutions.

National Park. North of the legislature is Parque Nacional (National Park), one of San José's nicely landscaped shady squares. The city planners have gone in for tall trees that make for a wonderful cool shade in the middle of the day. The park's centerpiece is an allegorical statue depicting the five Central American nations in arms, driving out the American adventurer William Walker, who had installed himself as ruler of Nicaragua in 1856. Across from the north side of the park is the National Library (Biblioteca Nacional), a modern and not particularly attractive airline-terminal sort of building, decorated with a splotchy mosaic of the sun. There are exhibit areas inside.

A block east of the library, at Avenida 3, Calle 21, is the old, Victorian-style Limón train station, now a national monument and open to the public as the Railroad Museum.

Stop by to admire the impressive steam engine of the Northern Railway (as the line was called before nationalization) on a spur in front, and the collection of memorabilia inside. There are photos of old San José, as well. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, with a small admission fee.

Northwest of National Park is the block-square compound that formerly housed the National Liquor Factory. Liquor is a big business in Costa Rica, in terms of the size of the country, and most of it is the business of a government-owned company. The site is being converted into a cultural center.

España Park. West of the liquor factory, between Avenidas 5 and 7, at 11 Calle, is Parque España (Park of Spain), also known as Parque de la Expresión, an enchanting little enclave of towering tropical trees transplanted from around the country. On Sundays, many of San José's artists display and sell their work here.

On the north side of Parque España, at Avenida 7 and Calle 11, is the modern office tower of the Instituto Nacional de Seguros, the government insurance monopoly. On the eleventh floor is the Museum of Pre-Columbian Jade (Museo de Jade), open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The name of the museum is somewhat misleading, for the collection is comprehensive, with contemporary pottery, tools, weapons and dress of the surviving native peoples of Costa Rica; exhibits showing how jade and gold and stone were worked; and a fascinating assortment of utilitarian art, with such pieces as metates (grinding stones) in anthropomorphic form. Of course, there is much purely decorative art, including jade pendants and necklaces produced by cultures that have now been obliterated.

(The term "museo," as used in this case and elsewhere in Costa Rica, can be misleading. Costa Rica's museums would be better called "collections"—small, often unithematic, visitable, and leavable, quite unlike monumental warehouses elsewhere which are impossible to appreciate on a single visit.)

The jade museum also offers from its high perch some excellent views of San José and environs—to the north and the volcanoes from the lounge, and to the south and the city center from the vestibule. The first building visible to the south is the Edificio Metálico (Metal Building), an unusual structure designed in France by Victor Baltard, architect of Les Halles. Incongruous and green-painted, with rusting roof panels, the Edificio Metálico was one of the first of the pre-fabs, shipped in pieces from Europe. It's now used as a school.

Across Calle 11 from the insurance building is the attractive, Spanish-style Casa Amarilla, which houses Costa Rica's foreign ministry.

North of Parque España is Barrio Amón, one of the more traditional neighborhoods of San José. Here are large, older homes in wood, decorated with fretwork and crowned with steep tin roofs; and stuccoed brick homes with Renaissance and baroque elements, sometimes painted in pastel colors. See this tropical wedding-cake architecture while you can. Construction in San José has slowed down with the economic problems of recent years, but these buildings are sure to disappear.

The Zoo. At the northern edge of downtown is Parque Zoológico Simón Bolívar (Simón Bolívar Zoological Park). Follow Calle 7 north, then Avenida 11 east to the entrance. Here are turtles, monkeys, macaws, peccaries, vultures, jaguars, alligators, ducks, and much else brought from all parts of Costa Rica to a rain forest planted in the middle of the city, complete with palms, bromeliads and aromatic plants. The zoo is well worth a visit if you have even a mild interest in the wildlife of Costa Rica. Also here is an information center for the national parks where publications are on sale. Bolívar Park is open Tuesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., weekends and holidays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a small admission charge.

South of the zoo, back in the central part of the city, is Parque Morazán, divided by heavily trafficked Calle 7 and Avenida 3 into four separate gardens. The nicest is the Japanese-style northeast section, with ponds, a temple-like gazebo, little bridges, and a kids' playground. The structure at the center of the park is the Temple of Music, another of San José's tributes to the finer things.

Watch your wallet or your purse in this area.
Pickpockets abound.

Snakes. On Avenida 1, between Calles 9 and 11, is the Serpentario (Serpentarium), another of San José's manageable mini-museums, or collections. Here you can encounter several dozen snakes, (among them a copperhead, jumping viper, bushmaster, boa constrictor, black cobra, parrot snake, and the star of the show, a python 5.3 meters long), in circumstances benign rather than frightening, fully labelled in Spanish (with some signs in English as well) as to species and habits, and well-lit. Some are not from Costa Rica, you will be pleased to know. If you wish to contemplate and identify dangerous species before an excursion into the wild, this is the place. You'll also find frogs, toads, iguanas, and lizards, all to be viewed for one small fee. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Look for the Fuji Film sign and take the stairs up.

Turning west, on Calle 7, Avenidas Central/1, is a collection of old photos of San José, with a $2 admission charge, which is probably skippable if your interest in local history is limited.

Farther west, on Calle 2, facing a pleasant mini-park, is the baroque palace that houses the central post office (Correos y Telégrafos, or Cortel).

Central Market. The Central Market (Mercado Central), at Calle 6 and Avenida 1, is a block-long area housing vendors of flowers, baskets, vegetables, shoes, spices, and a few souvenirs. It's small and sedate by Central American standards, but worth a walk-through. Other markets nearby are the Borbón, a block north, at Calle 8 between Avenidas 3 and 5, and the Coca-Cola bus terminal and market (named for an old bottling plant), Calle 16 between Avenidas 1 and 3. Just as interesting as the markets is the thriving general commerce of the area, where stores, stalls and street hustlers hawk fruit, firecrackers, flypaper, firearms, and countless other articles, many of which you'd have trouble finding at home.

Carrillo Park. One last downtown reference point, bounded by Avenidas 2 and 4, and Calles 12 and 14, is Parque Carrillo (Carrillo Park), also known as Parque Merced, after the church nearby. The park is typically treed and nicely landscaped, though the neighborhood is heavily trafficked and noisy. One interesting feature, though, is the park's centerpiece, a four-foot-diameter pre-Columbian stone sphere from Palmar Sur, in the southern Diquis region. Other examples of these near-perfect forms are to be seen at the National Museum and, as originals or reproductions, on many a lawn in San José, where they are popular decorations.

North of downtown, and of interest to visitors with time to browse and shop, is the El Pueblo Shopping Center (Centro Comercial). This is a tasteful, charming collection of shops, offices and restaurants, constructed in a style reminiscent of a colonial village, with narrow lanes, wrought-iron lamps, tile roofs, whitewashed brick and stuccoed walls, and beamed ceilings. It's almost better than the real thing. Most of the action at El Pueblo takes place after dark. Take the Calle Blancos bus from Avenida 5, Calles 1/3, or a taxi.

Paseo Colón and Sabana Park. Less than a mile to the west of downtown, at the opposite end of the upscale Paseo Colón district, is Parque Metropolitano (Metropolitan Park), or La Sabana, once the airport for San José. A drained lake has been restored, trees have grown back, and extensive sport facilities have been erected, including a pool, gymnasium, and stadium.

On the east side of the park, facing Paseo Colón, is the former airport control tower, a Spanish-style structure now converted to the Museo de Arte Costarricense (Museum of Costa Rican Art). Most of the paintings reflect an appreciation of the bucolic and the archaic that contrasts with modern Costa Rican life. Frequent subjects and motifs are idealized landscapes, Indian cultures long gone from the land, and oxcarts and whitewashed adobe houses; in other words, the simple life. Of the works displayed, Francisco Amighetti's woodcuts have earned the most fame outside of Costa Rica. The museum is open every day except Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and there is a small admission charge. Any Sabana bus from Avenida 3, Calles Central/2, or from the Central Park, will stop near the entrance.

The Museo de Ciencias Naturales (Natural Sciences Museum), is located near the southwest corner of La Sabana park, at Colegio La Salle, a secondary school. The collection includes thousands of stuffed birds, monkeys, and other denizens of the wild, many in mock-ups of their natural habitats. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday until noon, with a small admission charge. Buses from the Central Park marked "Sabana Cementerio" stop nearby.

Outside Downtown

Insects. The high point of San José for visitors interested in insects will be the Entomology Museum (Museo de Insectos), housed in the basement of the Escuela de Artes Musicales on the north side of the University of Costa Rica, in San Pedro. Take the outside steps down, on the east side of the main entry.

Most of the collection, which you can examine to the accompaniment of music filtering through the ceiling, is housed in one large room. The specialty is butterflies. Take a look at the huge blue morphos and many others, stunning even when dead, in iridescent purples, yellows and blues, colors that easily disguise them as flower petals. And there are poisonous spiders, moths, and models of tropical landscapes from several zones. Some tour guides will tell you that the sting of the peanut-head lantern fly will cause certain death unless the victim promptly engages in sexual intercourse. (You may take this as you wish.) My favorite item is the canned ants from Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Hours are from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and there is a small admission fee. Take a San Pedro bus near the Social Security building ("La Caja"), Avenida 2 between Calles 3 and 5. As long as you're out here, you might want to look in on the university's own nature reserve, in the middle of the ring of classroom buildings, and its botanical gardens. For more information, call 253-5323, extension 5318.

(For those who are really into insects, there is another Museo de Insectos y Mariposas [insect and butterfly museum] in suburban Santo Domingo de Heredia, 300 meters west of the bridge on the River Virilla, open daily except Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission $5. This includes the private Whitten Collection, which the curators claim is one of the largest of its kind.)

Further west, in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, is Mundo Sumergido (Submerged World), an exhibition of tropical fish, featuring Caribbean fish in a re-creation of their coral reef habitat, as well as Atlantic and Pacific species. The fish are on display in the back of an aquarium shop, four blocks east and two blocks north of the Y-junction on the road into town. Call 227-5491 for information.

Butterflies. Spirogyra is an urban butterfly garden northeast of downtown San José (Calle 46 at Avenida Central, Guadalupe, "50 meters west, 150 meters south of San Francisco church"). On display are a couple of dozen of the 4000 resident Costa Rican species, in an environment of flowering plants that provide nourishment, and fruit species that butterflies call home. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., admission about $5. Take the Guadalupe bus from Avenida 3, Calles 3/5. Another butterfly garden is in east-end San Pedro, opposite the San Pedro mall. Call 438-000 before heading out that way.

Oxcarts. South of central San José, in the working-class suburb of Desamparados, is the Oxcart Museum, in a venerable house that contains as well artifacts of the old rural life-style on which Costa Ricans look so fondly. Open daily except Monday from 8 a.m. to noon and 2 to 6 p.m.

San José Days

Once you've been in San José for a few days, you'll get some sense of the character of the city—progressive and relatively prosperous, but not ostentatious; fast-paced, but not frenetic; well-mannered and neat, but friendly and not excessively formal; respectful of tradition, but with few visible reminders of the past; a national capital, a center of commerce, but manageable in size; a collection of well-off and middling and working-class neighborhoods, with few areas of grinding poverty or ostentatious luxury. One says "but" and "not quite" rather often in describing San José, and all of Costa Rica, the country that has been called the "land of the happy medium."

But despite the progress of the last century, so evident in the efficient functioning of the capital, the crowds of customers at shops and restaurants, and the dense traffic, recurrent economic crises—brought on by foreign debt, unstable commodity prices, and neighboring political turmoil—has repeatedly driven more than half of Costa Rica's families below the poverty line.

And yet, the hard facts are not reflected in San José's surface. The middle class struggles to maintain its style and good taste, even when funds are limited. Josefinos are generally well groomed; their clothes are fashionable, though their wardrobes are limited. Their automobiles are small, but well maintained. Straitened elegance is the style, and it's catching. I once spotted a diplomat tooling around San José in a tiny Renault with a uniformed chauffeur.

One of the great debates into which visitors are drawn has to do with the merits of Costa Rica's women, and especially those of San José, who have acquired an extra-regional reputation for their beauty and charm. At the risk of sounding blasé, I will join the controversy and say that there are as many good-looking women in other places as well. But Ticas (and Ticos as well) are generally well groomed and well dressed, and in better shape than most Americans. And their preference for clothing that appears to have been pasted onto their bodies only enhances their fame (and form).

The liveliest time of year in San José is the month-long celebration that starts on December 1. Chinamos, stalls selling such seasonal goodies as apples and grapes, toys, and the makings of nativity scenes, crowd the sidewalks. Merchants open their businesses through the midday hours and even on weekends. The throngs grow larger and larger and louder and louder, and drunker and rowdier. Christmas is just a short pause in the round of parades, dancing, bonhomie, confetti-tossing, horse show, and general street partying that bursts finally at New Year's and dissolves into the traditional mass hangover. The onset of this orgy of self-indulgence coincides not with any religious or civic anniversary, but with the day when the aguinaldo, the yearly bonus for salaried employees, is usually paid.

 

What-country-are-we-in department: If you keep a sharp eye, you'll note pistol-packing guards not only at banks, but at hotels and major stores as well, just as in other Central American countries. Wielders of weapons are discreet, but they are there.

Who is that near the National Library, on Avenida 3, below 15 Calle, in steel helmet, with bayonet fixed? Just a soldier on sentry duty, you might think. Until you remember that this is Costa Rica and there are no soldiers. No, he's a civil guardsman.

If you read Spanish, you'll note that newspaper editorials freely criticize the government, and names of junketing legislators are published for the enlightenment of their constituents. Elsewhere in Latin America, the authorities of the day are treated with kid gloves. Yet freedom of the press is only available to licensed journalists.

This all might suggest that a certain country does not quite live up to its disarmed and disarming billing. Yet President Arias, according to a reader's report in the Tico Times, used to show up without any entourage at his dentist, and wait his turn; and I was pleased to approach and chat with President Calderón one afternoon when, as a candidate, he strolled unguarded into a hotel where I was lurking.

SAN JOSE DIRECTORY

Banks

You'll have no trouble finding a bank in downtown San José. Most are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Banco de Costa Rica branch at Calle 7 and Avenida 1 is open until 6 p.m., and is convenient to some of the larger hotels.

Banco Mercantil has an exchange boutique downtown, with quick service, at Calle 5 near Avenida Central, opposite the tourist office on the Plaza of Culture, open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Watch for pickpockets outside. Citibank has an office, tel. 296-1494.

For Euros, Canadian dollars and yen (if you've ignored my advice and brought along these currencies), try the services of Compañía Financiera Londres, on Calle Central near the corner of Avenida Central (next to La Casona), third floor.

Black-market money-changers, during periods when they are tolerated, congregate along Avenida Central between Calles 2 and 4, near the post office. These days, though, you'll do worse on the street than if you change at the bank or use your ATM card.

For tales of woe about changing travellers checks, see "Money and Banking" in the chapter of practical information.

Books, Magazines, Newspapers

For reading material in English, German and Spanish at a reasonable price, your best bet is Book Traders, a used-book exchange at Avenida 1, Calles 3/5 (Omni Building), upstairs behind Pizza Hut, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m